1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disc cases for accommodating such discs as compact discs and, more particularly, to a disc case, which is made of paper, permits smoothly accommodating and taking out a disc and can reliably hold the disc accommodated in a stable state of protection.
2. Prior Art
Recently, a variety of discs such as musical compact discs, DVDs and personal computer CD-ROMs are accommodated for circulation in disc cases of various forms. Many usual disc cases for accommodating compact discs and like discs are synthetic resin moldings, which have a center holder part provided at the center for engaging with the center hole of an inserted disc.
From the standpoint of coping with recent environmental pollution, however, such synthetic resin products pose problems in their discarding or disposal. In view of the discarding or disposal, products capable of being recycled or developing products of materials free from generation of harmful matter by burning have been desired. To meet this demand, disc cases made of paper have been developed.
FIGS. 5 and 6 show a prior art disc case made of paper.
The illustrated disc case 100 is in the form of a board, which has a recess 102 formed in its central part for accommodating a disc 101 and a notch 103 formed as a finger access part, which exposes part of the edge of the accommodated disc 101, that is, which is formed for accommodating removing the disc 101. This disc case 100 of paper is manufactured by bonding together a plurality of paper sheets, for instance a bottom, an intermediate and a top sheet 100a to 100c, to provide a predetermined thickness.
However, this prior art disc case has the following problems. Bonding together of a plurality of sheets individually having the notches 103, causes expansion or contraction of the individual sheets and results in a wavy form of the resultant board without alignment of the individual component sheets. That is, it is extremely difficult to line up the edges of the notches 103. Therefore, in addition to the operation of forming the notches in the individual component sheets, a difficult shaping operation is required to line up the individual component sheets after the bonding thereof.
In addition, although the prior art disc case having the notch as the finger access part permits conveniently accommodating and removing a disc, it has a disadvantage in that the accommodated disc is subject to scars and scratches from the outside due to partial exposure in the notch. This is the most significant drawback in view of the function of perfect protection, which is required for this type of disc case. Besides, dust particles may enter through the notch and be attached to the accommodated disc. It is thus difficult to maintain the seal which is most necessary for this type of disc case.
Furthermore, disc cases of the type to be filed in books have like problems. Specifically, the presence of the notch as the finger access part gives rise to the fatal drawbacks from the standpoint of disc protection, although it is convenient for accommodating and removing the disc.
A first object of the invention is to provide a disc case, which precludes the above drawbacks inherent in the prior art owing to the absence of any notch in the bottom, intermediate and top sheets that are bonded together in manufacture so as to be capable of being manufactured readily and accurately in a desired shape and to have desired dimensions. The invention permits smoothly accommodating and removing the disc without the presence, unlike the prior art disc case, of a notch as the finger access part that exposes part of the accommodated disc.
A second object of the invention is to provide a disc case, which can accommodate and protect a disc in a board without exposing any disc edge part from the case and while retaining the disc in a perfect protection state free from attachment of dust particles and also always in a stable state without the possibility of occasional detachment.
A third object of the invention is to provide a disc case, which is made of paper so as to sufficiently meet the demands of coping with environmental pollution, as well as having the thickness and rigidity comparable with those of the disc cases made of synthetic resin, which is capable of being manufactured to have the same dimensions as those of the disc cases made of synthetic resin so that it can be put together with CDs in the same rack in any shop, and which permits smoothly accommodating and removing the disc and sufficiently providing various functions required for this type of disc case.